Pineapple Upside Down CakePrint Recipe

The desire to make this cake came last Sunday night whilst I was watching one of my favourite TV shows – Desperate Housewives. For those of you that know the character Bree, she is a phenomonal cook and made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake that looked amazing. It’s also one of those cakes that has been around forever and I have always wondered if I might do it justice – well, today I had to try.

The cake itself is best described as a tea cake – it is fairly dense but with a light and tender crumb. The pineapple, sitting pretty in the caramel, is just delicious and caramelised perfectly. I chose not to go down the path of placing a glace cherry in the middle of each pineapple slice, I am happy to have them on my icecream sundaes but not on my cakes.

I used fresh pineapple which I cored with some new fandangle contraption I purchased specifically for this occasion – it cored the fruit and at the same time cut the rings in one big spiral. The only downfall in doing this was that my pineapple rings had cuts in them, but I prefer fresh over tinned any day and this particular pineapple was very sweet with an intense flavour and vibrant yellow colour – as opposed to my back up tin which was watery in comparison. I also used a little dark rum in my recipe which I think made it extra special – of course it’s not mandatory and it would be nice to switch fresh pineapple juice if you decided a booze-free tea cake was the way to go.

Desperate housewife or not – if you have a hankering for a tropical tea cake, this one will make you happy. I am happy, I am eating a slice right now and wondering what I can do with the empty pineapple shell and left over rum. I have some little razzle dazzle umbrella’s, so I am thinking a Hawaiian Punch may be in order.

Topping
1 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 fresh pinapple cored and sliced into rounds or 1 can (20 oz) of pineapple slices

Cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons cake flour
6 tablespoons of ground almonds/almond meal
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups of sugar
1 cup (227 grams/8 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
4 large eggs
7 tablespoons dark rum or fresh pinapple juice
3/4 cup sour cream

Grease a 10″ cake pan and set aside. To make the caramel topping, place the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and melt on a medium heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture is bubbly. Pour this mixture into the prepared cake tin and arrange the pineapple slices in a single layer on top of the caramel mixture.

Preheat your oven to 325f. Whisk the flours, almonds, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 4 tablespoons of rum (or pinapple juice). Add dry ingredients alternately with sour cream in 2 additions each, beating well after each addition. Pour this mixture over the caramel and pineapple.

Bake the cake until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 1 hour and 15 minutes – but check every 5 minutes after an hour. Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes and then brush the top (which will become the base) with the remaining 3 tablespoons of rum (or pinapple juice). Turn out onto a platter and serve warm or at room temperature.

© 2011, Michelle. All rights reserved.